Working Through The Night At Heathrow

We’ve been burning the midnight oil recently at London’s Heathrow, working alongside their night teams to complete repairs to the ait traffic roads under Pier 7 while it’s at its quietest.

So, what have we been up to?

As a licensed infrastructure contractor at both Heathrow and Gatwick, we’ve been helping complete repairs to the concrete and asphalt service roads beneath Heathrow’s Pier 7. Damaged parts of these roads needed to be cut so that they could be removed and repairs made. Our sawing specialists have been working through the night, carrying out their cuts in the early hours while the planes are parked up, to minimise the effect on the smooth running of the nation’s busiest airport.

How did we do it?

Our team used saw cutting to slice around the damaged road surface, allowing it to be milled out by concrete planers. This saw cutting marks out the perimeter and depth of the repair, ensuring the new patch has a consistent depth and upright stable sides to anchor to.

Some of this damage required a cut 500mm deep, meaning the team had to bring in a large 1.2m diameter blade. When working like this we use two saws in tandem, the first is a smaller saw which provides the initial guide and part depth cut, followed by the larger blade completing the saw cutting to full depth. This approach not only ensures great accuracy but also helps ensure safety by stabilising any flex in the larger blade within the cut.

Why was it tricky?

Our team was up against the clock, with all works needing to be completed by 5:30am ready for the morning flights. We worked closely with the Heathrow night team to ensure there would be no impact to services due to works overrunning, by completing nightly NABs (Night Activity Briefings) and working within the pre-arranged methodology. We also added our own best practice procedures to ensure safety, accuracy and efficiency by erecting physical barriers in holding points and lighting designed to maximise illumination at the cutting face. All of these precautions worked - the repairs were completed successfully in time for morning flight schedules.